Attorney General Becerra Issues Response to Trump Administration’s Baseless Allegations of Weldon Violation

SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Becerra today issued a statement in response to a letter from the Trump Administration’s Office for Civil Rights that alleges California law violates the Weldon Amendment, a federal appropriations rider that restricts abortion.

“Women’s health should never be dangled as bait for the sake of political grandstanding. Today, Donald Trump is using the official levers of government to advance his political agenda. Sound familiar? In California, we will continue to protect our families’ access to healthcare, including women’s constitutional right to abortion. Nothing changes.” 

Attorney General Becerra has been emphatic that California will defend women’s constitutional rights to control their own body and healthcare:

• On January 7, 2020, Attorney General Becerra led a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief in support of  a lawsuit challenging four restrictive Arkansas laws;
• On December 3, 2019, Attorney General Becerra joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting a constitutional challenge to a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to maintain hospital admitting privileges;
• On October 4, 2019, Attorney General Becerra led a coalition of 20 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief challenging Mississippi’s near-total ban on abortion in Jackson Women’s Health Organization, et al. v. State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department of Health, et al.;
• On April 12, 2019, Attorney General Becerra led a coalition of 22 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit filed by Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Mississippi; 
• Since March 4, 2019, Attorney General Becerra has been leading a lawsuit fighting against the Trump Administration’s Title X Final Rule that undermines the nation’s only federal family planning program;

• On January 13, 2019, Attorney General Becerra secured a second injunction against the Trump Administration’s harmful rules that would do away with the ACA’s contraception coverage requirement; and
• On September 4, 2018, Attorney General Becerra led a coalition of 18 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief challenging an anti-choice law in Ohio in the case Preterm-Cleveland, et al. v. Himes.